Tonkatsu Days
by strawberri mochi
Summary: Two young boys do everything together from drawing and going to school together to playing and growing up. What happens when one of them learns of his destiny apart from the other? This is a part of the childhood arc of a larger project in progress.


A/N: First off, I own nothing (except my invented character, Hiroyuki). If I did, there would have been some more BL action in the anime :P This is actually part of a a group of fics eventually leading up to big a finale. I started off writing a fic about each point in Kuroto and Hiroyuki's lives, such as their childhood, their teenage life, their college years and so on but I realized that it worked better as each arc of their life being separate fics. I still haven't decided if each arc will have multiple chapters or if they would all be one-shots. Hiroyuki is a (sort of) made-up character of mine. The name Hiroyuki means "great journey." 

"Kuroto! Takashi won't give me back my pencil case!" cried a five-year old Hiroyuki running toward the said person with tears rolling down his chubby cheeks.

Kuroto briefly looked up and went back to putting his books away. The pair had been drawing together under the great willow tree until Hiro had gotten bored and ran off to the playground.

"I told you not to run off," Kuroto said rolling his eyes at his younger friend. He carefully put his drawing pad away and packed up his crayons and slid the art materials into the largest compartment of his backpack. He swung his backpack over his shoulder and stuck his little arms out where the straps were. Kuroto was ready to go home but sighed when he saw his dark-haired friend still bawling and pouting.

"Fine, fine. What do you want me to do? Who took it?" Kuroto reluctantly asked. He was tired of sitting and was ready to start the walk home but he wasn't willing to let whoever it was take his friend's Doraemon pencil case. It was a shiny blue case with separate slots for writing and coloring utensils that both of the boys shared. Magically, Hiro's little face lit up and a mischievous grin split his pout.

"Gotcha! I tricked you!" he yelled cheered jumping up and down. Kuroto's temper flared.

"Why you..."

Hiro stuck his tongue out at his friend and ran away laughing.

"I'm going. See you tomorrow," Kuroto said to the retreating figure of his friend's back. Hiro waved goodbye good naturedly from a distance but Kuroto could almost feel the mirth on the other's lips.

_That Hiro, always messing around so that no one can tell when he's joking..._

When he arrived home, Kuroto found his mother wearing a worried expression. It looked like the weight of whatever it was emphasized the faint lines on her face. He opened his mouth to announce his arrival home but before he could utter a word, his mom interrupted.

"Hiro, dear, tomorrow I need you to do a favor for me." She said it in a serious no-nonsense tone, the same voice that she used to discipline him when he misbehaved. She kneeled down to look at him levelly in the eyes. He mind wondered wildly wondering what he had done wrong this time.

"Tomorrow, a man will come pick you up from school to talk to you about something special that only you can do, so I want you to be a big boy and do what he says, ok?"

He looked at his mother and nodded hesitantly.

"Something that only I can do?"

"Mmhm," his mother confirmed.

"But where will you be?"

"Mama will be shopping for your favorite dinner, so you better be good for him. If not, we will have natto instead of tonkatsu for dinner, understand?"

The boy nodded again. Tonkatsu was an important part of his balanced diet.

"Now go wash up and we can have dinner."

A quick glance at his mother. Then, "Hai."

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"...and then Mama said that only I could do it because I'm so special," Kuroto proudly told his friend the next morning crossing his arms in front of his chest the way he had seen adults do.

"Wow, that is so cool! What is it, what is it?" Hiro implored excitedly. "Tell me, tell me!"

"Uh, I don't know. But I'll find out after school," his friend replied.

"Ooh can I come too?"

"Um, I don't know."

"Aw man, I want to go too..." Hiro pouted. Kuroto shrugged. Mama didn't say that he couldn't bring his friends along...

Kuroto could barley sit still in anticipation of the man's special message during circle time causing his teacher to punish him twice by making him stand in the hallway with buckets of water in each hand. _What is it, _he wondered, _that makes it so special that only I can do it? _He pondered the question for the rest of the day barely registering what he was eating for lunch, which said a lot for his normally-voracious appetite. He tried to think of possible things that only he could do but came up with none.

At some point during the day, Hiro got just as impatient as Kuroto. "When's he supposed to come anyway? It's almost time to go home," he pointed out disappointed that he didn't get to find out what it was that only his friend could do.

"Well, Mama said that he would pick me up after school." A frown clouded the other's features when he realized that there was a possibility that the man could have forgotten or that maybe Mama had forgotten to remind the man to pick him up. He sighed. Hopefully, Mama would still make his favorite food tonight. His mouth watered at the thought of her tonkatsu.

"Mm...tonkatsu..." he muttered dreamily.

"What?" Hiro asked.

"Tonkatsu."

"Tonkatsu?"

"Yes, tonkatsu! Mama is making it tonight if I be a good boy and listen to the man," he grinned. "Ooh maybe you can ask your mom if you can come over for dinner!"

"Oh really? Bansai!"

The day continued with the boys' minds on tonkatsu and the mysterious man. At last, dismissal had arrived.

"I can't wait to find out what it is!" Hiro whispered excitedly as if it was a big secret. Well, it was a secret really but he was trying to be a good boy by not spilling the beans in case his parents let him eat at Kuroto's place tonight.

"Me too!" Kuroto squealed at a much higher volume earning curious glances from the other kids. Hiro slapped a hand over his friend's moth.

"Shh...don't tell them, let it be a secret between us," he said giggling. Kuroto grinned. He liked the idea of having a secret that only he and Hiro knew.

"Well, I'm going to wait here until that man comes," Hiro declared and the other didn't object. The boy plopped himself down on the curb next to Kuroto.

They watched their friends being picked up by their parents in suits or by parents with numerous grocery bags probably just returning from shopping. They also saw their classmates' siblings running to greet their friends.

"Say, Hiro, why are you called Hiroyuki?" Kuroto suddenly asked. It was a question that he had meant to ask Hiro when he had first transferred into their class but he never remembered until now.

"Eh? Only Mommy and Daddy call me that when they're angry. And sometimes teachers. They say it means 'great journey.'"

"Great journey? What is a journey?"

"I don't know. But I am Hiro."

"I know. but why do I call you 'Hiro'?"

"Huh? Because I want you to. Because that is my name."

"Why can't I call you Hiroyuki or Yuki?"

"Gah! Don't call me that! Yuki sounds so girly! And only grownups can call me Hiroyuki!"

"But I know some boys called Yuki too!" the raven-hair boy protested. "So why are you 'Hiro' and not 'Yuki'?"

"I told you, it's too girly!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not, Hi-chan!" Kuroto gave a toothy grin at his friend's disgusted face. To be honest, he liked the ring of Hi-chan.

"I said don't call me that!" Hiro stood up, anger written all over his face. "I'm going home," he announced with tears marring his cherubic face. This time, Kuroto could tell it wasn't a joke. When Hiro stamped his feet and balled his little fists like that, he was infuriated. It was a behavior that only came out when another child took his toy.

"Hiro-"

"Shut up!" Kuroto flinched, instantly regretted his actions. His friend was visibly upset. _Maybe I shouldn't have called him Hi-chan._Hiro grabbed his bag and ran out of the school without another word.

"Wait, Hiro, I'm sorry!" Kuroto called to the wind. Just as he was about to run after his friend, a shiny black car pulled up to the curb where the pair had been sitting.

"Hourai Kuroto?" a man later known as Takashiro asked. Kuroto craned his neck to look at the face and shrank back when he noticed how tiny he was compared to the other.

The blonde man chuckled. "Come, there's no need to be afraid. Your mother has told me all about you," he said in his deep voice. Then, the driver stepped out and opened the door to the backseat, motioning for Kuroto to go in. After the taller man slipped in beside Kuroto, the driver shut the door and drove away from the school.

In the distance, Hiro saw the whole incident and waved to the car forgetting that he was upset. He wasn't sure if his friend could see him since the windows were tainted. _Very_ _mysterious,_he thought, once again intrigued by the message the man would deliver.

After that day, the word "Zweilts" and "partners" became a part of the boys' vocabulary. They had learned from Takashiro that Kuroto was destined to become a part of a team called Zweilts that would fight to save the world from bad guys.

Hiro's eyes had bulged with excitement and jealousy when he had heard it.

"No way! That is so cool!" he shouted. "I want to be a Zweilt too!"

"You can't until your Mama tells that that man to talk to you," Kuroto said biting his lip. He too wished his friend could also help him fight bad guys. Hiro frowned.

"But I also want to..."he pouted tears already forming in his eyes. It hurt him to see his friend crying, so Kuroto gave him a hug in hopes of making his friend feel better. Hiro buried his face in his friend's shoulder and started to bawl.

"Shh...don't cry," the other comforted. He tried to think of how his mother would usually make him feel better when he was sad. Finally, he came up with an idea. Mama always taught him to look at the positive sides of things.

"You know what else Mama told me?" the future Zweilt whispered in the other's ear smoothing the other's ruffled hair with his left hand.

Hiro shook his head.

"She said that big boys don't cry and that if you want to be a Zweilt, you have to be a big boy," he murmured divulging the other on his secret. "She says that you have to be strong, too so you can't be a crybaby.."

Hiro, interest piqued, looked up between the folds of fabric."So how do I get strong, Kuroto?"

"Oh it's easy. You eat lots of Mama's tonkatsu," his friend replied earnestly.

"Really?"

"Really."

"It's that easy?"

"Yes, I promise. Mama says that's how I become strong, when I eat her cooking."

Hiro's eyes shone like stars against a velvet nightsky. "Wow, really? Thank you Kuroto! Just you wait! I will become strong too so that I can become a Zweilt with you! I will be your partner and we will save the world together!" he declared.

The two giggled some more in each other's arms until their parents came to pick them up. That year on his birthday, Hiro had wished to become a Zweilt with Kuroto. Two years later, his wish came true and was assigned as Kuroto's calligraphy-brush toting partner. 

A/N: Hope you liked! Please R&R! For those of you who don't know what natto is, it is fermented soybeans with a really strong taste and smell. I personally don't like them very much but it's an acquired taste. Tonkatsu is pork cutlet, which is one of the things that I learned in my Japanese class. Thanks for reading!**  
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